All New Mistakes
by badriddance
Summary: AU where Dan is given a glimpse of Jon's grasp of time in his own life, and how he decides to use it. NO/R. Written for a secret santa exchange.
1. Chapter 1

This wasn't going according to plan. Not that there had been much of one to begin with. Daniel had gone down the ramp to do what? Confront Manhattan about his girl? It was ridiculous, but had still made Rorschach tingle under all his layers. Manhattan hadn't been as impressed. He had held one hand out and clapped it down on Dan's face. Dan had frozen, a thumb and pinky under each eye, the others resting on his forehead, and then Rorschach's tingle had turned to pins and needles stabbing in alarm.

There had been a hum and crackle of static. Dan's eyes had blazed as white and empty as Manhattan's and he had collapsed as limply as if Manhattan had dissolved his bones out of him.

"Jon!" Laurie's voice was shrill and petulant, like a brat whose newest toy has been broken to teach her a lesson. Rorschach had lunged out to stand over Dan. It was as useless a gesture as Dan's had been. What could he do against a jealous god? He glared up, savagely glad to see Laurie blanch at whatever she saw in the swirling blots. There was a burst of blue and they were both gone.

There was a silence then, except for his own harsh breathing. Only his. He turned back to Dan in alarm. If he wasn't breathing… Rorschach dropped to his knees over him, pulling off his gloves. He straddled his waist to claw at the armor for a pulse. Nothing from the chest, so he dug under the throat armor, still warm and damp. Nothing.

Manhattan could've just stopped his heart, could've teleported it somewhere else, maybe for Laurie to step on wherever they were going and ruin her atrocious shoes, could've done any number of fatal things. Helplessness shook Rorschach in its teeth. What could he do? How could he undo what Manhattan had done? What kind of vengeance could he take on the blue being for it? How could you punish something so removed? Would even killing Laurie affect him now? Rorschach was distracted from such thoughts when a heartbeat shuddered under his fingers.

"Daniel?" His voice was hardly recognizable, but when Dan's eyed opened, they were also. They were still a pale, electric color that stared through him for a long horrible moment before Dan winced and squeezed them shut. "Daniel!"

He cupped Dan's face, relief colliding with more fears that something unfixable had been done to his friend. Dan's eyes opened again, this time with a painful gasp. They were brown again, but he choked on each breath and clutched Rorschach like he was drowning.

"You're alive!" he gasped as if he wasn't the one on his back on the floor. He half-laughed, half-sobbed, throwing his arms around Rorschach's neck and pulling him close. He chuckled/wept something disbelieving into Rorschach's chest and then pulled him down to kiss him through the mask. Rorschach froze, jaw dropping as kiss after kiss pressed against his open mouth. It was relief, obvious, heart-breaking relief, and it was for him and he had no idea why, so he allowed it, even when the shock wore off enough for him to think again. By then, Dan had buried his face into Rorschach's throat and was rocking them both gently.

"There's still time," he whispered. Rorschach didn't know what he meant by that, but he could tell it was significant to Dan. Whatever had affected him this way had left his emotions overflowing into his voice. Rorschach tried to gently ease him back.

"Time to go" he said, hoping mention of the mission would help. "Check with Adrian."

"No." Dan's voice went cold so fast that Rorschach couldn't help but freeze. He looked down to find the brown eyes hard and icy.

"What?" he asked.

"Adrian is behind all this. All of it. He killed Comedian, Moloch, Weaver, Janey Slater. He framed you and Jon. He intends to kill millions more to make his point and have his own way. I know it." He ran a hand into his hair. "Jon made me see time the way he does. Laurie told me he had tried to do that to her. I went through my whole life laying here, Rorschach. I saw it all, from birth to the day I end up dying in the rain. I don't know why he showed me, but he did. We go to Adrian's office, we find out what he did, and we go to confront him."

Rorschach was staring at him. There was a certainty there that he hadn't seen in Dan in years, if ever. The polite, placating look in his eyes was gone. There was stone cold conviction staring back at him and it caused a weak flutter in his stomach. When was the last time he had eaten? He didn't remember. It didn't matter.

"And?" he prompted. Dan's expression didn't change. He looked more like his namesake now than he ever had with the goggles.

"We lose."

"You believe that?" Rorschach forced his unease to sound like anger. "Accept your visions as carved in stone, like Manhattan?"

"No," Dan still sounded certain, implacable, ruthless? "I have seen my whole life, Rorschach. I know exactly what I'll regret when I lay dying and I have no intention of making the same mistakes twice." A trace of his gentler self-deprecating smile touched his lips. "I intend to make all new ones."

He sat up and kissed Rorschach again before he could pull back. Shock slammed through him again. He made a sound but wasn't able to move until Dan got back up and started rummaging through the piles of equipment and carrying it into Archie. Rorschach got to his feet. He was stunned and galvanized, but none of his emotions were complete enough for him to act on. Outrage, confusion, relief, worry, and something he wasn't sure what to call flickered through him, kaliedescoping into each other. He felt lightheaded and trembling, and fumbled for a sugar cube. He got his breathing under control and ventured over to where Dan was feverishly packing things up.

"We have time," Dan said again, over his shoulder. "It will take all day to get Antarctica, and it won't work anyway. When we get there, Adrian will just muss his hair beating both of us bloody. We aren't able to stop him. You die trying."

"…Not a bad way to go." It was all that Rorschach could think to say. Dan gave him a steely look.

"Except that no one knows," he grumbled. "No one ever finds out. It's assumed we die in the attack because we're never seen again."

"We?"

"I die six years later." Dan buried himself in the box of parts again. "That six years is spent planning what I could've, should've done. Replaying it over and over again. I know what to do now."

Rorschach made a questioning sound, creeping closer. The energy was crackling off Dan and Rorschach was tempted to touch him, just to feel it quiver. Dan was moving too quickly for that now. Another load of parts and tools was put in Archie and then he started pulling out canisters with flammable markings.

"Get aboard," he said. "We'll do the rest en route. The police will be here soon."


	2. Chapter 2

_At the bottom of the river, Dan was hard at work on whatever all those pieces were for and trying to explain. His plan was insane, but delivered with the matter-of-fact certainty of a man reciting common knowledge. _

"_We know when the attack will come. And Adrian doesn't know we know."_

"_Unless he bugged Archie. Could be listening right now." _

"_That's why I'm playing the music so loud," Dan sighed. "We can stop this thing. I'll drop you off with all the information on Pyramid and Veidt to pass on to whatever authorities you think we can trust and you can call a bomb warning in for the site. We'll have to sacrifice Archie."_

"…_what?"_

"_Load him up with explosives, fly him up to where the squid shows up, intercept it as soon as it appears, and blow it up before it hits. Probably rain pieces down, but the loss of life shouldn't be nearly as high."_

"_And where will you be?" Rorschach asked after a moment. Dan didn't look up. _

"_Too many variables involved to risk remote control," he said. "Somebody has to steer to make it work."_

_Rorschach felt as electrified as he had when Dan kissed him, but this was much colder._

"_No," he said. His hand clutched at Dan's arm. "Daniel…" They locked eyes over the contraption._

"_Not letting you die for this twice," Dan said. "I lived with that too long. I could've used this time to get us both to safety, or, or saved Hollis." Rorschach's body language turned puzzled. Pain and sweetness twisted Dan's mouth. "Had to choose. God help me, I chose you."_

_Rorschach couldn't breathe. His grip tightened. He could read all kinds of true things from Dan's voice, but couldn't make his own voice force out any._

"_It's worth it," Dan said. "To save people, to save you. And be at least a small thorn in Adrian's side."_

_No no no. _Rorschach couldn't even say it now. He could only shake his head. _No. Dan was back. Nite Owl was back. It was like sunshine, something warm and pure and it rose in his throat and choked off everything else. Couldn't lose him again so soon. Not when… Not after…_

"_Has to be another way," he finally said, almost whimpered._

"_I came up with eleven that were plausible, " Dan smiled a little sadly. "This is the one with the smallest chance of failure."_

"_No!" Fear and anger brought Rorschach's voice back to a roar. "Evacuating site anyway! No need to die to protect real estate!"_

"_Plan 7 involves a series of smaller explosions with a terrorist threat of a much larger one to clear the area. But that would get attention. Veidt and his wall of TVs would see it and be able to plan around it and we-"_

"_He's in Antarctica, Daniel," Rorschach pointed out. "Cut off communications and he's blind. Have to rely on his set plans."_

"_We would have to take out the whole global news network to do that," Dan said. He was prepared to explain this again, but Rorschach could hear some agitation creeping in. "How do you suggest we-_

"_Seem to have several bombs, Daniel."_

_There was a long silence then. Being talked out of killing himself hadn't shaken Dan's aura of resolve and they stared at each other over the half-assembled explosives. _

"_People will still die," Dan said. "We won't be heroes anymore. It will put us in the same boat as Adrian._

_We'll be terrorists, no matter how good our intentions."_

_That was a point. Rorschach thought of eye for an eye and fighting fire with fire. He thought of what Dan had told him about the devastation and how it had stopped the first threat of nuclear attack, but not the second when a biologist had found traces of human manufacturing in the pieces of the squid. Some of the artists Adrian had used hadn't been able to resist leaving signatures on their work. It took two years to find it, another to confirm it, and then the whole world had gone on a witch hunt. America had blamed Russia which had denied the ability to create any such things and pointed toward Japan and all around in a circle that had the world spiraling into the disaster Dan had died in. That last part had to be changed if nothing else._

"_Already on the run," he said. "Changes nothing. Police know our identities. Be hunted wherever we go no matter what we do. Best to lay the blame where it belongs."_

_Dan smiled._

"_You're sure?" he asked leaning close. Rorschach nodded, breathing hard through the mask. "You're positive?" Rorschach hesitated, then kissed him. It was quick and clumsy, but Dan grabbed his belt and yanked them flush with each other. _


	3. Chapter 3

_Crazy_, Rorschach thought. _All of this was_. Maybe Manhattan had scrambled all of Dan's mind, making him want to throw away his life, making him desire Rorschach, as punishment for his dalliance with Laurie. Maybe that was the only reason he was doing this. Punishment. Maybe he was screaming on the inside with the horror of having his hands and mouth on Rorschach instead of Laurie, an entirely different body pressed between his and the console. The same console? The thought made him growl and slam his hands into Dan's chest, shoving him back into the pilot seat. Dan's look of alarm melted into relieved grin when Rorschach landed in his lap.

"Oh thank God," he gasped and they got into a tangle of limbs as Rorschach hooked a leg over one armrest and slid the other one under. They grappled with each other's clothes, not bothering to get them off, just open so hands and mouths could roam.

The giddy electric sensation was back, but without the paralysis or the numb shock. Every touch felt like hot velvet over skin that had been left in the cold too long. His blood fizzled and his vision blurred as Dan's hands slid along the lines of his body. After so long of not ever seeing any part of Rorschach, maybe he just wanted to finally know where the costume ended and the man underneath began. His fingers traced over ridges of muscle, bone, and scar, lingering at whatever spot got a gasp out of Rorschach. There were several. He was so unused to being touched gently that every brush of hand across his body made him writhe.

As overwhelming as it was, it very quickly wasn't enough. For the first time he could remember, the costumes were in the way, his mask was in the way. Under him, Dan must've agreed because he was fumbling with their clothes, pulling them open wider, letting hot flesh out into the cooler air. His fingers working to rub them both together made Rorschach hiss. They were both aching and leaking and Dan's touch didn't help that. He slicked them both with their own fluids while they moaned into each others' mouths.

They ground feverishly at each other for an endless minute and then Dan was clutching his hips, leaning him back. Rorschach let his back arch and revel in the friction before he realized that Dan was trying to line him up for penetration, like a pretty butterfly in a collection, the black and white pinned to the same console next to the vivid yellow and black one. Something that could have been jealousy before it exploded into possessive heat made him shove Dan back into the chair again. He snarled and Dan's jaw dropped.

"Too much?" he stammered.

"Not nearly enough," Rorschach growled back, reversing their angles so that Dan sprawled back in the chair with his legs up against the console. Dan gasped as Rorschach bent over him, the blots forming something gargoyle-ish to match the predatory loom. There was a flash of apprehension and a deeper spark of outright fear, but then their bodies nudged together and the resulting flood of lust bubbled up and drowned both out. Still, for pride's sake, he bucked up under, raising Rorschach off his feet, just to remind him that he could easily be heaved up against the console again.

There was another growl, this one lower-pitched, and he felt latex-covered teeth on his throat. It distracted him from the first clumsy thrust, but the second was better aimed and they both gasped.

"OK," Dan began and was cut off by his own yip. "Never thought you'd want to-" His voice broke off again as Rorschach's hips rocked and his fingers dug in and they both gasped. They struggled with each other for a moment, trying to find a mutual rhythm. Rorschach was forcing himself not to give in to the sensation and focus on Dan. The look on Dan's face was delirious and helpless and he moved like he was trapped underwater. Had he been this way for Laurie? The lost, stunned sounds he made seemed to indicate this was a new experience and elation threatened Rorschach's control of himself. Laurie hadn't done this, _couldn't do this for him. This was theirs completely and when Dan wailed his name, something very primal answered. _

"_Mine." It was an animal sound, territorial and rumbling from some dark den in his chest. He saw the effect it had on Dan's expression like a splash of kerosene across a fire. Dan surged up to meet him, clawing at his shoulders and sucking the latex over Rorschach's lips into his own mouth. His legs clamped around him, holding them too tightly together to pull out again. They strained together, clawing and biting until they came so violently that Rorschach's head was thrown back into the steering column and Dan got a mouthful of black fluid when he bit through the mask._


	4. Chapter 4

Hours later, the explosions started. All carefully placed to take out television and radio towers, they had only left enough local sources to spread the word to evacuate the area due to terrorist threat. The last building to go down was the Veidt building itself. The heard the muffled sound from somewhere below as it shook twice and then folded neatly inwards. The displaced air shook Archie and made their noses bump slightly.

From Archie, the smoking sites formed a new V, or an arrow pointing to where the devastation would happen. The radio was bonkers with stories of lost connections and NYC being completely cut off and the mass exodus of citizens to get away from the site. They were only half-listening, curled in a nest of their own costumes on the floor.

It might change nothing. Adrian's machinations might juggernaut on. Then, again they might have broken a link in the chain, letting the rest crumble. Either way, they had tried, made the most of a second chance, and Rorschach was still alive. That much had changed, and it might be all the change that mattered. Even if everything else still failed, Dan wouldn't have to face the aftermath alone. They would still have more chances to fix things.

Was it too much to ask to have this too? Dan wondered, murmuring happily at the nuzzle of a blunt nose into his ear. His newly minted resolve solidified around his heart, making it throb a little painfully as a rough-skinned hand stroked down his arm. After everything Adrian had taken from them, he wouldn't take this too.


End file.
